Le Monde’s Best Chance is a Model for Failure

Unlike the local and regional papers, the national French newspapers are spiraling into a freefall much as many others are worldwide, only worse because the general-interest national papers are so few in number.

French papers should, some pundits say, be more serious, achieve worldwide recognition, and above all have more content (the weekend edition of Libération, one of the three main French newspapers, is only 40 pages, a far cry from the two-kilo Sunday edition of the LA Times). But since these papers are facing crisis too, French papers and their critics in dire need of a new model. Alain Minc, a former Le Monde director and now a close adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy, long maintained that if French newspapers were failing it was because of their lack of resemblance to the New York Times.

You read that right. More like that smoldering heap, the NYT.

Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro have between them made 200 people redundant in the past three years. Libération, which has been operating at a loss for several years, is being put in an awkward situation by an employee who is refusing to accept redundancy. L'Humanité, the communist daily paper, is closer to collapse than it has ever been.

Sarkozy recently organised a general meeting for the press to share his vision of what the papers should do and issue a pronouncement. This much-vaunted reform essentially consists of giving the established daily newspapers more subsidies in the years to come – which could only have the effect of postponing their collapse. He has, for instance, announced an increase in presidential advertising in the press and has granted papers certain tax exemptions. The rather more dramatic move to give every 18-year-old in the country a one-year subscription to a daily paper (to encourage them to appreciate the press) is perhaps the only measure that might have a longer term effect.

It must be hard for the natives to appreciate the extremism in these decisions: an employee who insists that they cannot be let go, shaking the plausibility of the press by putting it on the government payroll, and giving it away to 18 year olds like the advertisers handed out in public transit that have a scant few items and a weather map. This “once grand” industry – a cultural institution or sorts is at the end of its’ rope and can’t move forward along the lines of even the French language press in Canada. The problem starts with a paucity of content, and an expensive cover price, but the racketeering quality of the state of distribution means that newspapers can’t be sold in vending boxes, in grocery stores, or anyone other than the Tabac newsstands and some bookstores just to avoid strikes and service shut-downs by those that have always distributed and sold them. If anything, they are being killed by socialism.

Meanwhile, back in the department of your fungible freedoms...

If the BBC learns generosity, it can become untouchable

To survive the recession, the corporation must place itself at the centre of an unselfish cultural network

Meanwhile in the UK, even the news branches of the electronic media are being subtly consolidated in all but name only. BBC and ITV already share from the same talent pool and predispositions, now they’re to share regional facilities. Owing to the obvious fact that subsidy-drawing people and the unsubsidized will be sharing space in the same newsrooms, the obvious next move will be a merging of budgets and expenses. Using inferences too secondary and unrelated to be real, lefty parasite Jackie Ashley (whose headline is quoted above) thinks that this move is otay for all manner of emotional reasons but blithe to any notion of what effect this could have on the freedom of the press.

Yet this BBC-ITV link is big news. I trained at the BBC, but I spent many years working for ITN and Channel 4 news. I wouldn't quite say we hated the BBC, but we were vigorous and aggressive rivals who thought we were better in almost every way - sharper, faster and much less stuffy. Even at local level the new partnership will feel uneasy for a lot of journalists, and it is unclear how well it will work.

and now you can kiss that goodbye. A job down memory lane reminds me just how frequently it was that the communists of the Soviet era invoked the “efficiency” argument when faced with any discussion of the excessive concentration of powers in any area or the benefits of plurality of opinion, and it was as awkward and clumsy in tone as Ashley’s argument.

Ballad of the Green Beret

Red-meat for US protectionists

This ought to get the delocalisation/protectionist crowd in the US ginned-up and ready to go, unfortunately:

American International Group Inc., the insurer saved from collapse by a U.S. taxpayer bailout, said Societe Generale of France and Deutsche Bank AG of Germany led a group of 20 foreign and U.S. banks that received billions of dollars in collateral payments after the rescue.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and France's Calyon, were also among recipients of $22.4 billion, AIG said as it released the list for the first time today. AIG had previously said collateral recipients couldn’t be named because of confidentiality requirements.

There are Good Reasons to Want Carville to Fail Too

It seems that James Carville for reasons his fellow mental captives will call forgivable, seems to have repeatedly hoped President Bush would fail. This makes him no different than any other one of the left’s many punters and Tourette’s Syndrome suffers over the 8 years they criticized as the dreaded dark era of Bush where the peasant’s wells were poisoned and their children gored for the pleasure of anyone who didn’t agree with them.

Having met Carville man in a Virginia coffee shop several times, I found it to be like trying to converse with a chicken, even if about banal matters. The man just HAS to try to get you to repeat his opinion back to you, and the one thing that I’m sure drove him off for good was me just reading the paper and not offering to entertain him. To me, he seemed no different than the attention-seeking losers and drunks who tumble into non-chain coffee places in the hope of faking some sort of social life employing the strangers who don’t quite know them yet.

Moreover, he tries to use so many colloquial images, characters whom he seems to try to step into, that to take his nature in person and try o square it with his manner in from of the media, he seems patently fake. He is NOT folksy. He is not a forceful bundle of elfin energy, charm, or the constructive, engaged sort that is associated with provincial American life or “regional cool”. He is by no means more rotten than your average politico, but he isn’t who he wants you to think he is. One can’t expect much from a political advisor, professional traveler, and symposium attender, but to say that he’s some belvedere of decency in comparison to Rush Limbaugh is an impossible stretch.

That aside, his highly self-absorbed and vicious outward nature described in this report doesn’t surprise me, much as the fake outrage directed at Rush by the left over his one mention that he wanted Obama’s policies to fail.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: "I certainly hope he doesn't succeed."

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

"We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I'm wanting them to turn against him," Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: "They don't want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails."

Minutes later, as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: "Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!"

Rally around the nation, and all that! At least for now when it has to look that way...

I want the White House’s policies to fail too, because they are bad for the country. Every last cute-sounding euphemism they have for an initiative is meant to enlarge the role of government and increase it’s control over the individual’s life and choices. Having lived behind the iron curtain, I am familiar enough with the sentiment and where that tendency can lead a society. Impirically, there is no reason to support Obama’s policies, even if you agree with his world view, or even just like him, there is no reason to believe that anyone can berate and browbeat you into wanting those policies to succeed. None. No-one with a mind should feel compelled to agree with something they have reservations about for the reasons that the left are trying to give you to.

That omission stands in stark contrast to the feeding frenzy that ensued when radio host Rush Limbaugh recently said he wanted President Obama to fail. The press devoted wall-to-wall coverage to the remark, suggesting that Limbaugh and, by extension, conservative Republicans, were unpatriotic.

If your only reason to cite your attachment to the society you live in, and to be protective of it, is to employ some political stunt or jam some racketeering-like budget through, then you are certainly not patriotic, and show no affection for the society you live in at all. Zero. Zip. The population knows this, but Democratic operators like Carville don’t. At best they know how to fake an accent, and wax on about high-school memories, but it’s deeply arrogant to believe that these setups are taken at their face value as much as Al Gore who grew up in Washington’s Mayflower Hotel is “through and through” a good neighbor from Tennessee.

Then again, I suppose there are many in that steamy world who really are afraid that if they will actually show themselves for who they are, that they won’t be liked.

Nicolas Sarkozy sur l'OTAN : Il faut en finir avec l'illusion qu'en nous mettant la tête dans le sable, nous nous protégeons de quoi que ce soit

La France sait aussi qui sont ses alliés et qui sont ses amis

said Nicolas Sarkozy during a March 11 speech reaffirming his commitment to have France rejoin NATO:

nos amis et nos alliés, c'est d'abord la famille occidentale. Les conditions de l'indépendance, c'est d'abord de savoir où est sa famille.

In spite of that strong beginning, France's president went on to speak of the necessity of a strong Europe (not a strong West nor a strong NATO).

Pour être forte, notre défense doit aussi être indépendante (…). Il nous faut une Europe forte. Construire l'Europe de la défense et de la sécurité est une priorité absolue. L'Europe doit s'affirmer dans le monde, comme elle l'a fait l'été dernier dans la crise géorgienne. (…) Car qu'est-ce qu'une grande puissance économique qui n'aurait pas les capacités militaires de défendre ses intérêts ? Et comment parler d'une voix de l'Europe si celle-ci doit se taire quand les armes parlent ? Les Européens doivent pouvoir agir par eux-mêmes si c'est nécessaire, et avec leurs alliés s'ils le décident.

…En 2009, il s'agit de tirer les conséquences de la construction européenne, de nouvelles menaces et de nouvelles priorités stratégiques. Mais avec le même objectif historique : assurer la sécurité et l'influence de la France, dans le respect de l'indépendance nationale et de notre autonomie stratégique

Nicolas Sarkozy seems to go on to take on France's obstructionism and anti-Americanism by the horns.

L'ambition française pour la défense européenne a longtemps suscité la méfiance en Europe et en Amérique. Aux yeux de beaucoup, la France, en poussant la défense européenne, cherchait à affaiblir le lien transatlantique et l'Alliance. Un antiaméricanisme stérile renforçait trop souvent cette perception.

But he goes on to blame …France's Non to the Lisbon treaty (!?). Later:

Notre éloignement proclamé mais non réalisé avec l'OTAN limite notre indépendance nationale. J'avais dit l'année dernière que ce mouvement vers l'Alliance passait d'abord par une relance de la défense européenne. C'est fait.

…Rappelons-le : nous sommes membres fondateurs de l'Alliance atlantique, née il y a soixante ans exactement. Nous ne l'avons jamais quittée. Elle est et reste un élément central de notre politique de défense et de sécurité, avec un engagement fondamental : celui de l'assistance mutuelle en cas d'agression. Et ce n'est certainement pas les Français qui vont s'inquiéter d'avoir un accord avec les Etats-Unis au cas où nous serions agressés, alors que les Américains sont venus nous sauver deux fois !

…Depuis 1966, la France s'est rapprochée de l'OTAN par étapes, mais le plus souvent sans le dire. … Notre position n'est pas comprise de nos alliés. Notre incapacité à assumer au grand jour notre position dans l'Alliance jette le doute sur nos objectifs. Résultat, nous avons une Alliance qui n'est pas assez européenne et une Europe de la défense qui ne progressait pas comme nous l'espérions.

Nous n'avons aucun poste militaire de responsabilité. Nous n'avons pas notre mot à dire quand les Alliés définissent les objectifs et les moyens militaires pour les opérations auxquelles nous participons ! Formidable ! On envoie des soldats sur le terrain, et on ne participe pas aux comités qui définissent une telle stratégie ! Et tout ceci de notre propre fait, car nous nous excluons nous-mêmes. L'OTAN est la seule organisation internationale du monde où la France ne cherche pas à être présente et influente !

…Naturellement, nous allons conserver notre dissuasion nucléaire indépendante. Et nous conserverons notre liberté d'appréciation sur l'envoi de nos troupes. Et nous ne placerons pas de contingent en permanence sous commandement allié en temps de paix. Ces principes posés par le Livre blanc, je les ai faits miens. Et rien dans l'OTAN d'aujourd'hui ne les contredit.

…Nous voulons une Alliance ouverte aux nations de l'espace euro-atlantique. Mais notre Alliance n'est pas une auberge : y entrer, cela implique de partager nos valeurs, de pouvoir en assumer les responsabilités et de contribuer effectivement à la sécurité des alliés et à la stabilité du continent.

Nous voulons reconstruire une relation de partenariat avec la Russie, si celle-ci le souhaite, et débattre avec elle de la sécurité de notre continent. On ne va pas laisser les Etats-Unis et la Russie discuter tranquillement dans leur coin de la sécurité sur notre continent!

While Frédéric Bozo points out in Le Monde that both Mitterrand and Chirac tried to have France rejoin the Atlantic Alliance (he goes on to — diplomatically — accuse the Americans of treachery ["la non-intégration française dans la structure militaire et dans certains organes politico-militaires a été utilisée par les Américains pour stigmatiser encore davantage la politique française et entretenir le soupçon d'une France congénitalement anti-américaine"]), Nicolas Sarkozy takes on General de Gaulle (and even, perhaps, indirectly, France's African policies), accusing his Gaullist critics (among others, Dominique de Villepin) of speaking "lies" and "shameful lies":

Certains me disent que ce choix serait une trahison du général de Gaulle. Un "alignement sur Washington". Une remise en cause de notre vocation à dialoguer avec la Russie ou les pays du Sud. Ou encore que la France s'engagerait dans une "guerre des civilisations" contre les musulmans. Et même que, si nous avions été dans le commandement intégré, nous aurions été forcés de participer à la guerre contre l'Irak en 2003 ! Mensonges ! Mensonges ! Contrevérités !

Qui peut prétendre savoir ce que ferait aujourd'hui le général de Gaulle ? Et croit-on qu'il aurait fait en 1966 la politique de 1923 ? Oui, nous sommes les alliés des Etats-Unis, mais des amis debout, des alliés indépendants et des partenaires libres. J'assume que dans le monde moderne on doit pouvoir changer des décisions prises il y aura bientôt cinquante ans. Faudrait-il, au nom de l'héritage gaulliste, renoncer au traité de non-prolifération que de Gaulle rejetait ? Ou refuser que nos amis allemands stationnent un régiment en France ? Et ne rien toucher à nos accords de défense avec l'Afrique et y conserver des bases obsolètes ?

Meanwhile, Le Monde's readers react with vehemence to Le Monde's editorial and to Laurent Zecchini's article on the return to NATO (remember, this is from those who call Yanks their "amis américains" — barely one person to point out that "Le geste de Mars ‘66 a été reçu comme une trahison dans les pays occupés par l’ex URSS").

• La France ne doit pas s'engager dans des guerres qui ne sont pas les siennes!
• Rentrer dans l'Otan, c'est perdre la 3ème voix de l'Europe, dont les chances de devenir politique sont de plus en plus hypothétique.
• La France dans l'OTAN... Comment admettre une telle infamie?
• L'otan reste un repli néo-con
• L'empire anglo-saxon ferme ses rangs pour diriger la planète!
• Savez vous que ce sont des MP américains qui vont assurer la sécurité à Strasbourg?
• Une belle trahison, en fait !
• un assujettissement aux USA
• les Etats-Unis auront-ils encore longtemps les moyens de leur leadership ?
• Nous y gagnons de nous ligoter à une puissance en déclin, qui se fout de ses alliés et dont les intérêts ne sont pas les nôtres(moyen orient).
• Et alors chers Militaires, ça ne vous fait rien de voir l'Armée française - que vous avez choisi de servir - devenir la branche francophone d'une multinationale de mercenaires du Grand Capital, prenant ses ordres à Washington ?

"He Should Have Been Decorated for His Sense of Humor"

In the Bush-bashing "No one seems to think of what would have happened had the hooligan thrown a shoe — or anything — at Saddam (or at anyone) during the Saddam Hussein era" department, the French are scandalized — scandalized, I tell you! — that the Baghdad shoe thrower (who could have gotten 15 years behind bars and who was once reported as having been mercilessly tortured) has received a three-year sentence! How dare they? How dare they?!

More Evidence for Europe's More Humane System (Its Penal System, Its Health System, Its Economic System, etc, etc, etc, etc…)

More fodder for Frenchmen bragging about their irrefutably superior system to clueless Neanderthal-like Americans: Another inmate (this one a 17-year-old teenager) commits suicide in a French prison, writes Le Monde.

Support Your Local Dictator

I’m sure he’s saying: We are the change we’ve been looking for.” Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

Turnout Sunday was 99.98 percent, with all voters backing the sole candidate running in their constituency, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

Museum of Saddam's Horrors

(Shookhran to David)

You’ll Just Have to Understand, That’s All.

A multiple target terror attack has been foiled in the Netherlands.

Seven people have been arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of planning a terror attack on an Ikea furniture store and a number of shops near the Ajax stadium in the capital Amsterdam.

It might have something to do with that distant and vapid sense of style, the silly kids’ names given to the inanimate objects sold at Ikea, or the “hypocritically cheap” batteries and lightbulb-lectures, or what with all the featureless forms and sag-prone bookcases, but I doubt it.

In the course of Thursday morning, the Ikea store and a number of other shops in the area were evacuated. The shops are on Arena Boulevard, named after Ajax's Arena football stadium which is nearby.

The shops and the Heineken Music Hall remained closed all day on Thursday

One of suspects picked up and later released was connected with people of interest the Madrid train bombings. Inasmuch as it’s the Netherlands we’re talking about, debate, debate, and yet more debate will turn to profiling, and that should keep people sufficiently busy and too distracted to consider the harm that could have been done by the attack.

The motive, beyond scaring Europeans from inside their own safe little cocoon, seems even stupider than that considering Ajax’s team nickname:

Instead, Ajax Amsterdam is struggling to stamp out the bizarre tradition by which its most devoted fans call themselves "Jews", even tattooing themselves with Stars of David and waving Israeli flags, although they are not Jewish and know little of Judaism.

The dispute has escalated into the latest test case for Dutch tolerance

Although one can only wonder why it is that the natives’ “tolerance” itself is a problem when you’re dealing with people who are disturbed by Ajax fans calling themselves “Superjoden”, or “Super Jews” while they are statistically about as likely to be Jews as Netherlands’ immigrants from Morocco. The name, apparently, is enough to make the aboriginals a target for death and destruction.

It used to give rise to a rather strange form of “side taking”, but fans of their opponents, even the ones that nickname themselves “the SS” probably didn’t go so far as to terrorize the public with attempts at mass murder.

Oddly enough, the social habits of the garden variety European, sports fans included, besides infecting the stupidest terrorists on earth, seems to lack “nuance”.

More recently, the issue has become a significant social problem in that in an increasingly bizarre and racist way, opposing supporters specifically use anti-semitism to express their antipathy towards Ajax. This is expressed in chants such as Hamas, Hamas/Jews into the gas (Hamas, hamas, joden aan het gas) or producing hissing sounds that imitate the flow of gas.

The irony is that had the bombers been successful, while they would subject the innocent to their death penalty, the guilty themselves would never have to hear that hissing sound.

What a Bunch of Morons

What better way for disinterested, meddling foreigners to free-ride on a “historic” US presidency by linking Obama, who I understand is a black man, with fried chicken?

To employ cheapness of thought similar to that of this Germany-based company and virtually all European critics of anything assocated with anything American, we’d like to point out that their plant happens to be situated 198 km from Bergen-Belsen, and 120 km from Westerbork, NL where there was no fried chicken to be found. See? We're just as culturally sensitive as your average cultural-halo-ensconced European. So there.

By the way, the same company sells horse spunk, presumably at the same address.

Have a nice day.

Surprised?

Relational databases don’t lie. Biased-BBC is a good place to discover why Radio 4 listeners have an affinity with the Hermit Autocracy.

For our part, we'll take Rush over Soros

[A] Fox poll taken Jan. 16-17, 2007, asked respondents about the surge in Iraq: "Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?" An astounding 34% said they did not want the surge to succeed. Among Democratic Party leaders the percentage was probably close to 100%.

Thus reports Investor's Business Daily (which added, regarding Newsweek's Rush Limbaugh cover, "So much for disagreeing with what you say but defending to the death your right to say it [—] Voltaire could never be a contributor to Newsweek").

If, as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says, Rush Limbaugh "is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party," it is only fair to ask: Who is his Democratic counterpart?

Our nominee is George Soros, the Hungarian billionaire and former Nazi sympathizer who helped fund MoveOn.org, the radical group that smeared Gen. David Petraeus with its "General Betray Us" ad last fall.

Through his Open Society Initiative and personal contributions Soros has funded many liberal causes and many Democratic candidates with the intent of undermining democracy and capitalism. His ultimate goal is to create a global socialist collective where we hand over our money and/or freedom and sing "Kumbaya."

For our part, we'll take Rush over Soros.

If the Jews ARE Trying to Commit Genocide, Then the Jews Are Schmucks!

Evan Sayet is back (thanks to Valerie): Hating What's Right: How Modern Liberals Wind Up On The Wrong Side of EVERY Issue

When They Color the Story, and When they Don’t. A Primer.

Depends on where the story takes place. With thanks to commenter Jan, we discover the art of political water torture. A sociopath in Germany kills 10 in a school, and it elicits sadness. A sociopath in the USA kills 9 and it prompts a condescending trope.

Just who is it who’s employing innocent victims to prove to themselves something about their own opinions? The same culture that always does: the germans are said to be shot, the Americans are “killed in a murderous folly”. The usual reaction, as ever, is for people to tell themselves that “at least we’re better than those Americans”.

The dead were not sought for comment, and I don’t think their parents and loved ones would take any pleasure in the lives of the victims being used in that way. But in the land of kindness and social leveling, they seem especially eager not to think that way.

When they are considered actual victims, the reports try to play it straight.

It was reported Wednesday that At least ten people were killed Wednesday morning in a shooting at a school near Stuttgart (in southwest Germany).

Eight of those killed were shot in the school, and two outside, according to the newspaper. Authorities evacuated the school and warned motorists traveling in the area.

In reality, it was 16, even though each story cited the same local sources.

However the intellectual necrophilia creeps out when under the influence of attitude, not one person in specific societies is considered a victim.

Murder in the United States: he killed nine people and committed suicide.

It was in Samson, in southern Alabama, that he took his first victims. He entered in three different homes in the city and killed six adults and a child, before returning by car to the nearby town of Geneva.

On the road, he killed two more.

Then the crazy killer fled into a business, Reliable Metal, where he was surrounded by police.

It seems Germans can’t be called crazy. THAT would wrong, since we don’t know if he was an abused child, or just though he was sticking it to the man or something. Unlike someone who reminds them of Mad Max or Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona, someone who kills that many European children might need to be understood.



I guess they call this “news you can use”

It isn’t about being American either, but it helps. It’s about conforming to a simplistic, trained in concept of who may be a victim and who may not by dint of the image their culture has, and it’s all expressed in the ‘tude. Compare this report to this silence. Surely the Guardian reading types are reserving their comments until an appropriate rationalization minimizing the wrongness of the behavior of their fellow travelers can be constructed. THAT is far more important to them that the straight reporting of events, especially when you see the victims of thoughtless hatred characterized this way:

The Royal Anglian Regiment, known as the ¬Poachers, paraded through Luton town centre at midday yesterday.

The protesters, dressed in Islamic clothing, were initially kept away from the marching soldiers and union flag-waving locals by police. They shouted abuse and waved placards with slogans including "Anglian soldiers: cowards, killers, extremists" and "British government, terrorist government". Later the protesters had to be protected by the police

But they were only “dressed that way.” It’s not like you can deduce their opinions or establish what propaganda they’ve been fed, and by whom. After all, they needed to be protected themselves, and the occasion is good to bring out the worst possible sounding nickname of their target, calling them the “Poachers”. I mean think about the animals in Blighty’s verdant (if not paved over) pastures, will ya!?!

The Sick European Relationship with Power

Amazingly, this came from a Bertelsmann mock-blog of all places – one called “Sight and Sign” which normally lauds all things “culturally” European except for the occasional New Yorker or Vanity Fair article to try to give it a “global” look.

The broadcaster ZDF has co-financed the 60th birthday celebrations for the Minister President of Rheinland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck, who was also the chairman of ZDF's board of directors for many years. The blog Achse des Guten (axis of good) quotes a letter from ZDF to a viewer who had asked for more information: "Originally, ZDF had considered honouring the longstanding chair of its board of directors with a special event that would give the executive management, the members of the ZDF supervisory board, as well as the staff the opportunity to show their reverence for Kurt Beck. The minister president made it clear that personal gifts were not desired and that the expenditure for the reception should be kept within acceptable proportions. For that reason, the government of Rheinland-Palatinate and ZDF agreed to host an event together. Indeed ZDF is essentially funneling its limited contribution to this event into technical-organisational support as well as a cash contribution."

A local politician on the take, the need to “revere” his somehow, putting him on the board of one of Germany’s most influential broadcasting outfits... sure. Sounds fair that is, if you’re the type that likes to lick the boot that kicks you.

(And what form did their reverence take? Did they kiss his ring?)

Historically speaking, if that is European culture you’re talking about, then the answer would be yes.

Daily translation

While no surprise:

Higher taxes on vehicles and fuel are in store for Swedish motorists, transport companies and industry as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the government said Tuesday. Finance Minister Anders Borg, Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren and Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson said in a joint statement that the measures would take the current financial slump into account.

As of 2011 taxes on diesel fuel were to be raised in two stages by 0.40 kronor (0.04 dollars), as would taxes on carbon-dioxide emissions while the forestry and agriculture sectors would be included in emissions trading schemes.

The measures that included taxes on heating were part of a pending bill on energy and enviroment, and the goal was to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a further 2 million tons by 2020.

"A price tag on climate changing emissions underlines that emissions carry a cost that have to be paid," Carlgren said.

Borg said the "changes have to be made gradually so that households and businesses have time to adjust."

Shouldn't that last sentence read:

Borg said the "changes have to be made gradually so that households do not notice yet another rise in their taxes."

Maybe They Really Are the Ones They’ve Been Waiting For

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?”

“You got it wrong,” he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.

The Obama Administration is proving itself to be composed of incompetent amateurs. Not only can’t they figure out simple diplomatic protocol, the gestures of exchanging appropriate gift that predate the Caesars, they can’t seem to find a Russian translator. More to the point, their executive types even try using lame, cooked-up PR analogies in international relations: “resetting” this and that with bodies like the Kremlin or Damascus who simply don’t budge – ever, let alone “reset” relations.

Loony, unintelligable throw-away lines about we being the ones we have been waiting for aside, just what is it that they CAN do if the answer is the equally cryptic “yes we can”? Write advertizing taglines? Write haiku on Twitter? Waste humanity's oxygen?

The donkeys really don’t seem to have a clue as to what they’re doing, but keep in mind that if you report news for a living, you aren’t permitted to say that, or even point out the hypocrisy of their election tirades for that matter.

Lesson for the Left: You Actually Have to Win Wars to Turn Guns into Plowshares

Isn’t this the kind of Nanny State Mother-Hen crap that the left is supposed to love?

An increasing number of Iraqi detainees are refusing to leave detention centres despite being eligible for release because they want to complete studies begun behind bars, a US general said on Sunday.

"In the last three or four months we have begun seeing detainees asking to stay in detention, usually to complete their studies," Major General Douglas Stone told a news conference in Baghdad.

The US military offers a wide range of educational programmes to the 23,000 or so detainees -- adults and juveniles -- being held at its two detention facilities, Camp Cropper near Baghdad's international airport and Camp Bucca near the southern port city of Basra.

Some parents of juvenile detainees, too, have asked that their children remain behind bars so they can continue their schooling, said Stone, the commanding general for US detainee operations in Iraq.

I wonder where this is supposed to fit into that “no blood for oil” chanting and the 1970’s retread jargon about never deploying the military because it takes from the mouths of American babies and funds from schools? Or how it sits with that “only creating more enemies” taunt to get civilization to off itself?

French Court Gives Jihadists Foot-soldiers their own “Cultural Exception”

John Rosenthal reports:

Last Tuesday, a Parisian appeals court overturned the convictions of five former Guantanamo inmates who had been found guilty on terrorist conspiracy charges in 2007. The development should give pause to wonder not only about the wisdom of plans to transfer Guantanamo inmates to European countries, but more fundamentally about the very idea of treating the “disposition” of Guantanamo inmates as an issue for civilian courts, whether in the US or abroad. The five French Gitmo detainees were repatriated to France in 2004 and 2005. They were tried and convicted on charges of belonging to a “criminal association formed for the purpose of undertaking a terrorist act.” The definition of this crime in French law is exceptionally broad. Not only does it permit what are, in effect, preventive detentions, but a suspect may be convicted by virtue of merely having had “regular contact” [relations habituelles] with one or more other persons who form part of such a terrorist enterprise.

And apparently that’s the favor they say they’re going to do for America, after telling us that they’ve councilled us on the wrongness of defending ourselves. They find a court that will release terrorists into the population, and we’re considered unwise and more dangerous.

The five former Gitmo detainees, however, did not merely have casual contact with members of a terror group. All five have admitted to receiving military training in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. They were taken prisoner in the Afghan-Pakistani border region in late 2001, while fleeing the Battle of Tora-Bora

But somehow in the diseased minds of “the peace camp”, this doesn’t make them prisoners of war.



Leftist protesting nonsensically for the western liberal world to disarm itself outside a military equipment trade fair on 11-Sept-2001, while the attacks were taking place.

No new (DIRECT) taxes

Via the WSJ's ECO:nomics Conference:

A worldwide cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions would prove more effective than a global carbon tax, Caio Koch-Weser, former German deputy finance minister and vice chairman of Deutsche Bank, told the WSJ’s ECO:nomics conference Friday.

Mr. Koch-Weser said one problem with trying to impose a carbon tax around the world is that it would be difficult to guarantee the revenues from it would be used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A cap-and-trade system, on the other hand, relies on businesses trading credits to help keep down emissions.

Of course the true problem (from a politician's point of view) with trying to impose a carbon tax around the world is the direct nature of such a tax on the individual. We can't have that a time when the proles around the world are restless about their own economic futures. Best for government to tax them indirectly by having the costs of a cap and trade system buried deep in the price of end products for the consumer.

The current epoch of history can be called many things, "Profiles in Courage" is not one of them.

Quo Vadis

Wanting to have it both ways (as always)…

• It's an outrage! Rush Limbaugh is the de facto head of the Republican Party!

— So why doesn't Barack Obama debate him?

• Him?! Hah! Snort! Rushbo is nothing but a radio talk show host!

— If he is nothing more than that, why do they make such a big deal about him?!

• Why, you ask?! "Why"?! Because Rush is the de facto head of the Republican Party, that's why!!!

— So why doesn't Barack Obama debate him?

• Him?! Hah! Snort! Rushbo is nothing but a…

Etc… Etc… Etc… Etc…

What We Want (and What We Don't Want)

What we conservatives want is for America to prevail, to go forward — to succeed.

When (say) George W Bush does (or did) something to make America succeed, we supported him (or we supported that policy).

When GWB did something to make America fail, we wanted him (or his policy, rather) to fail.

It is exactly the same with Barack Obama — whatever party he is a member of.

If and when BHO does something to make America succeed, we support that policy (and thus the president).

When BHO does something to make America fail, we hope to see that policy (and thus the president) fail.

What on Earth (!) is so controversial about that?!?!

Didn't untold numbers of liberals want Dubya to fail for the past 8 years?!? And his administration?!? And the Iraq War?!?

Why is that fine, even laudable, while conservatives' opposition to policies is nothing short of an outrage and of treason!? Why the double standards?!

To quote Rush Limbaugh (at CPAC):

Now, about my still-to-me mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl. And as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. [Cheers and Applause] So they have this miraculous scoring drive that puts them up by four, 15 seconds left. Kurt Warner on the field for the Cardinals. And I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win. I wanted Warner to make the biggest fool of himself possible. I wanted a sack, I wanted anything. I wanted the Steelers to win. I wanted to win. I wanted the Cardinals to fail.

This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war on Iraq to fail!

CROWD: Yes!

Rush: They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There's Dingy Harry Reid waiving a white flag: [doing Harry Reid impression] "This war is lost. This war is" — [Cheers and Applause] They called General Petraeus a liar before he even testified. Mrs. Clinton — [Crowd Booing] — said she had to, willingly suspend disbelief in order to listen to Petraeus. We're in the process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to win. They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed? [Applause]

Let me add a caveat here. My friends, I know what's going on. I know what's going on. We're in the aspects here of an historic presidency. I know that. But let me be honest again. I got over the historical aspects of this in November. President Obama is our president. President Obama stands for certain things. I don't care, he could be a Martian. He could be from Michigan, I don't know -- just kidding. Doesn't matter to me what his race is. It doesn't matter. He's liberal is what matters to me. And his articulated -- his articulated plans scare me. Now, I understand we can't say we want the President to fail, Mr. Limbaugh. That's like saying -- this is the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, guys who have lost their guts. You can't say Mr. Limbaugh that you want the President to fail because that's like saying you want the country to fail. It's the opposite. I want the country to survive. I want the country to succeed. [Cheers and Applause] [Crowd Chanting "USA" ]

I want the country to survive as we have known it, as you and I were raised in it, is what I mean. Now, I have been called -- and I can take it. Pioneers take the arrows, I don't mind what anybody says about me, any time ever. I don't have time for it. I don't give other people the power to offend me. And you shouldn't either, by the wasted time being offended.[Applause]

I mean, there's some people you can't say you want the President to fail. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States, the Democrat Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican presidents and policies and now wars for the first time, the Democrat Party doesn't stop at failure. Talk to Judge Robert Bork or Justice Clarence Thomas about how they tried to destroy lives, reputations and character, and I'm supposed to say I don't want the President to fail? [Applause] We're in for a real battle. We are talking about the United States of America -- and there will always be an America, don't misunderstand me -- we're talking about it remaining the country we were all born into and reared and grown into. And it's under assault. It's always under assault. But it's never been under assault like this from within before. And it's a serious, serious battle.

EUtopia at a Glance

It might have something to do with building ridiculous expectations of men or being just plain insufferable, but it seems that a majority of young German men would forego their hoochie mamas for broadband and Rosey palm and her five sisters.

The New Puritanism

Gordon Brown most polluting EU leader. That said, Boeings, as opposed to brand X, are irrationally impied to be at fault.

Not unlike the songs of lider-praise that open and close the north Korean broadcast day, an unrelated requisite recitation of moral purity is tossed in at the end of the wire piece:

The EU sees itself as the world leader on environmental issues, and the bloc's member states last December reaffirmed their commitment to cut carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency by 20 percent, both by 2020, in a bid to fight global warming.

It need not be said that one must state this wherever possible because the programming is so deep that one need not write such a rule. George Romero would recognize this behavior right away. It can also be found here in this item where the matter of Europeans stiffing the 3rd world with the bill to “act on the climate change” that they’re employing transnational bodies to force them to do.

At the same time, many of those reductions committed to by the EU will not really be performed domestically, as a large chunk of the 20 or 30 percent will come from so-called carbon offsets - essentially where wealthy countries pay poorer ones to make their carbon cuts for them.

What will be especially funny is when they run out of deprived populations to project their non-existent crises on.

They Love Death the Way You Love Life

It’s par for the course at Libération PropagandaStaffel. Conservative politicians get death-threats, and most of the commenters on Libé’s site cheer. Some of them buy into the constructed myth that since being a citizen “requires” one to praise Sarko and is not permitted to criticize him, and that the kook sending the threatening letters is “resisting”. Never mind the fact that they man foaming at the mouth in the comments has somehow, magically, escaped the imaginary thought-police of his fevered brow.

But it doesn’t really sound like he’s much of a whacko, not compared to most of the flock... The rambling letters apparently blames the recipients, all of them UMP officeholders and appointees, of enacting fascist policies and all are festooned with bad spelling and grammar. In other words, they were written by a garden variety French leftist.

Among other threats, the letters say: 'You think you have control of your lives, well no, your lives and your families' lives are in our hands.'

It was not clear whether the author was making any specific demand or defending any stated cause.

Of course not! What with that fetish for control of any and all affairs, the perp appears to be promoting the radical left’s social policy, and mirroring their love of violence, so long as their political opponents, families, neighbors, pets, anyone who agrees with them, and their pets are the victims.

Maybe Some of Them Find Enforcement Erotic

Long famous for having a law for every occasion, Germans start toying with genetic cataloging and profiling. The jack-booted thugs are coming after your Aunt Lucille’s incontinent Pomeranian! Have they no shame?!?

Threatening to Evaporate into that Great Transnational Nothingness

Isn’t it funny? Europeans are the single group of people worldwide most interested in outsourcing their security and justice to the UN of the ICC in the name of consensus, cohesion, and global sameness. They also have a penchance for preferring excessive central control for no good reason over Federalism, and yet have no meaningful EU institutions with any sort of government powers.

Europe may now be "whole and free" after the collapse of communism. But the European Union is not a country, and the deep global contraction is stimulating nationalism, not consensus.

With uncertain leadership and few powerful collective institutions, the union is struggling with the strains this economic crisis has inevitably produced among 27 different countries with different economic histories. The traditional concept of "solidarity," of one for all, is being undermined by protectionist pressures from political leaders with national constituencies and agendas.

Just when you thought that you couldn’t understand they’re trying to do by building a transnational super-duper-über-state, they proved themselves to be especially unremarkable and simplistic. They’re even repeating the centuries-old practice of selling each other up the river for a nickel.

Within the larger European Union, fissures are growing between older members and newer ones, especially those that lived under the stifling yoke of Soviet socialism only 20 years ago. Some countries of Central Europe, like the Czech Republic and Poland, are doing relatively well. Others, like Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states, are in a state of near-meltdown. But only two newer members - tiny Slovenia and Slovakia - are protected by being inside the euro zone, and there was little support Sunday for changing the rules to allow more to join quickly.

Rumsfeld’s flippant comment about old and new Europe seem as correct no as it did then, and does the traditional fear new Europe has for being, once again, thrown into the Bear’s mouth in the hope that it will make him a vegetarian.

The natives would care,but they’re too busy trying to re-terraform that moonscape of theirs for mother Gaia.

Last year, a spate of brutal, unsolved "rabbit murders" left 40 bunnies near the city of Dortmund dead.

That’s not just a crime against cuteness and “nature” as it’s understood by people who have no natural environment left, it’s practically a serial crime spree. Let’s hope that helplessness and despair don’t take root, and that they can convince themselves that this is all just another perfectly acceptable cow-like mutilation by aliens. Then again, they might be able to take away from this one of those ‘Like Lions for Lambs” harangues that will clue them in on the need for an east-west détante within the EU:

In an echo of the city's old cold war split, the Tagesspiegel daily wrote Monday that hares in the eastern side of the once divided city are now competing with rabbits for food in the western side.

Some Posts...

...just seem to write themselves.

EU to EU: Drop Dead

The result of yesterday's mini-summit in Brussels hits on many levels:

European Union leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, rejected a call by Hungary for a sweeping bailout of Eastern Europe, as the bloc struggled to find consensus on an approach to the spiraling financial crisis at a summit Sunday.

Now, there are many valid reasons on both sides of the issue which led to the rejection of this request of some EU members by other EU members. However, the part that galls:

But both the bailout and calls for Eastern European countries to join the euro sooner were coolly received by Western European nations. Ms. Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy both separately suggested that Eastern countries should look elsewhere -- to the International Monetary Fund, for instance -- for help.

The World Bank is also mentioned as a source for possible bailout funds for the EU's very own Eastern European member states. Of course, the largest provider of funding to international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank would be .... the United States. So, the denizens of solidarity, the champions of One Europe and the absolute true believers in an inescapable march to an ever closer union will turn not to Brussels but to Washington if/when a bailout of their very own member states is required.

The dog whistle to alert the US taxpayer that a US bailout of EU member states is coming will be sounded this week when UK PM Gordon Brown visits Washington attempt to drum up US support for a "Global New Deal". If one hears the phrase "strengthening global financial institutions" coming out of the PM's mouth, the US taxpayer should take that as a cue to instinctively reach for their wallet (or what is left of it).

There is one bit of good luck on the side of the US taxpayer in this developing story. The EU has unfortunately chosen one of their most hapless emissaries to palm off sell this deal to the Americans. It is just that every personal appearance by the UK PM of late has only ended in tears for those in attendance.

Next Time On “Who Wants to be Called a Superpower”

=Sarko managed a very insightful comment at the recent Munich security conference, albeit something absolutely no action can be expected will be taken on by the patchwork of continental statelets that just want humanity to hold them in high regard for no clear reason:

Does Europe want peace or does it want to be left in peace? I’d like you to think about this. Do you want peace or do you want to be left in peace? It isn’t the same policy, it isn’t the same strategy, and the consequences aren’t the same. If you want peace, you have to give yourselves the means to exist as an economic, financial, political and military power. You want to be left in peace? If so, you have to curl up very small, stay in your corner, cover your eyes, block your ears, and not talk too loudly, and for a time you will be left in peace. Until the moment when it’s discovered that you haven’t got the means to defend yourself. But at that point, it will be too late.

The overwhelming response he got at that security conference was that Europe indeed wanted to be left in peace. Sobeit. The very fact that they’re having a conference to discuss a conference is ultimate bureaucratic prize. Especially since the Strasbourg/Kehl conference is going almost certainly to be a Kabuki theater scene of the Europeans being asked to share some burden in Afghanistan and knowing from their pre-emptive strike that they will say no.

What is that creeping around in that world view of the large part of the European leisure class? Simple: achieve peace by eliminating whatever small capacity their governments still have to defend their populations and interests. Here we see that the reflex is so ingrained and requiring no thought that they even oppose the holding of a conference where most of their governments will be resoundingly refusing to oppose the Taliban and al Queda. I guess identity politics, and class and religious warfare is honky-dorey with these nuts because they consider themselves non-participants and non-members of humanity anyway. Either that or violently bumping your fist in the air for peace does something for them. To each his own. I guess their sexual proclivities aren’t doing it for them anymore.

Further on the medievalism theme, we find this unintentionally funny headline: Strasbourg prepares for siege as Anti-NATO forces gather.

“There is no question of ruining Strasbourg, but NATO cannot claim to occupy a town if we cannot do the same”.

Keep an eye out for head-smashing and public car-b-ques for peace. Sure sounds peaceful and super-national to me, what with all of that imagining there’s no countries, and such – especially since the item is hosted Russia Today, a state-operated media arm of a passive-aggressive mobocracy with nukes.

How Leftists Handle a Disagreement

Forget about all of that hokum about concensus building and getting along. They just don't, and prefer Manson Family values to accepting that others don't see the world as they would themselves.

These people are entirely incapable of living normative lives in world where they have to deal with differences of opinion.

Domy, the sychophant: Erik Svane, the French hater who is living in France, and prime activist of " No Pasaran " blog, is speaking on ....
France 24, (the French Pravda) !

He is surrending to French medias ???

The video here :
http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/2009/02/as-obama-is-compared-to-lincoln-jfk-and.html

Usually he is homophobic, Islamophobic, Europaphobic, Frenchphobic, Socialistphobic, but on this video
he suddenly has an angel face !

Ce type serait prêt à passer sur ventre de sa mère, pour faire parler de lui !

You can almost see the posters spunking all over themselves with glee at the ideas that their hatred counts for something in the world. Their idea of intelligent discourse stops at about this point:

Superfrenchie, a man who only permits comments on his blog that agree with his world view"Erik Swane of 'Republicans Abroad'"....

More like Racists Bigots Abroad!

- SuperFrenchie

That’s the best Chazelle (who lives in the US state of Maryland, not the France which he is growing increasingly less familiar with) and his fellow travelers can do: call people who don’t drink from his cup bigots, racists, homophobes, etc. or anything else they concider the opposite of their concepts of virtue. That is the absolute limit of their capacity for rhetoric, and except for a very small group of intellectuals in the left’s weltanschauung, the limit of most of the left’s capacity to understand the rest of the world.

You’ll note that the general idea they have that identity, in particular those ones they find popular this week, are themselves a virtue, not necessarily those expressions of virtue founded on the things people actually say and do. Ironically, Chazelle calls himself an adult.

Greetings from CPAC

CPAC 2009 in full swing…

This is What Old Europe Means by “Finally Getting Involved” in Iraq

The European Greens are no longer pacifists. What they really aren’t though is realistic about what Europe will actually commit to when they say that it’s time to support their man in the White House when it comes to Iraq, now that they think the White House is theirs’.

”The European Union should make use of its rich experience of state-building and managing transition and peace-building processes to support the Iraqi government" ... "by educating, training and mentoring personnel of key ministries, such as the ministries of the Interior and Justice." "... call for human resources of about 200 to 500 European officials as part of a broad initiative" ... "to empower state institutions and to train officials and qualified staff"

Which is to say, create another raft of jobs for the managing types who will serve in the European exploitation of Iraq, as opposed to the US’ interest, time, and commitment to put Iraqi resources at work in Iraq’s benefit.

The pieties all sound nice until you read their proposal for engagement.

Noting that the US doesn’t need EU troops, but EU civilians to come just in time for stabilization to pay off, one of the contributors to this academic-journal style of articles gathered together to be called a report, one writer lays out the United States’ basic objectives for Iraq.

It is important to be clear about the US’ vital interests and options in Iraq, which will have echoes and repercussions in Europe. An expert group spanning the full range of the American political spectrum convened at the US Institute of Peace over the past year and defined US vital interests as follows:
1. Prevent Iraq from becoming a haven or platform for international terrorists.
2. Restore US credibility, prestige, and capacity to act worldwide.
3. Improve regional stability.
4. Limit and redirect Iranian influence.
5. Maintain an independent Iraq as a single state.

Aside from the fact that they are harldy able to accomplish any of this within Europe in the former Yugoslavia after more than a decade of occupation, the European objectives are also made quite clear.

Behold the (American) blood for (European) oil “humanitarian policy position” found on page 37:

There is plenty of gas in Iraq that Europe can make use of. According to Syrian oil expert Mustapha al-Sayyed, this reserve “Can easily provide Europe with gas for the upcoming 10 years.” The European gas network, he said, is linked to the Turkish one,
which in turn will be connected to the Syrian one, “in no more than 6 months.” Once the Syrian gas network is in full operation with the Turkish and European one, he said, this will be a tremendous source of additional power to Europe. The Iraqi gas reserve is estimated at more than 112 trillion cubic feet, larger than that of both Algeria and Egypt combined. In the Akkas field, for example, near the border with Syria, there is an estimated seven trillion cubic feet, representing up to 6% of Iraq’s full reserves.
This reserve would relieve Europe from its reliance on Russia, which currently provides nearly 40% of the continent’s need, said Sayyed, who is closely involved with the Akkas gas fields. “Akkas is expected to produce up to 50 million cubic feet/day by 2011, when the Americans leave Iraq, and given a mutual will between both the European Union and Iraq, this could increase to more than nine-fold, after the Americans leave Iraq.”

Goodbye pluralism, here comes Total, Siemens, Nestlé, and the rest of the usual stuff they tell themselves for inspiration.

Invest in young people, those who are struggling to get a better education, or escape the misery of their difficulties in Iraq. Scholarships should be provided for promising Iraqi students to study at European schools, visit Europe to learn more about European culture, and then return to their countries, to “spread the influence.”

Then they can drive for them under the influence. ‘Tis their way: maximum profit for minimum gain, all wrapped up with a bow and a card called “See? Now we care!” Amazingly, they want to be loved for merely thinking this battle plan of theirs’ isn’t as crass as it seems, even going so far as to call it elsewhere in the screed a “moral obligation”.

Make the best of the current desire in Iraq to provide alternatives to the American option when it comes to industrial development, commerce, real estate, oil and gas.

Same as it ever was.

British Squaddie Goes Green, Joy Rides

and eventually hugs tree.

The Reality of Squandered Sympathy

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When Obama went on his midsummer world tour, foreign leaders fell over themselves to get in photo-ops with the Democratic nominee, and a crowd of hundreds of thousands packed a park in Berlin to hear Obama speak.

What’s all that goofy EurObamaMania worth? Just like rest of those empty European pieties. Nothing.

In fact, in Germany, the debate is shifting away from “what more can we do?” entirely, and toward “when can we leave?” Merkel’s immediate predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, wrote in the Spiegel that “the question of how much longer this is supposed to last is also appropriate. I believe that the Bundeswehr’s mission can be ended within 10 years. . . . A timeframe must be set for troop withdrawal.”

The Anti-Americans’ Vocabulary Still Hasn’t Yet Expanded to that of a Normal Adult

Doomed! America is doomed, I tell ya! Whithering away! But not whithering away too quickly to be at fault of the very opposite too – culpability for showing any comparative degree of success in anything. For that, and its’ opposite, the entire culture, people, and most of all its’ image must be smited to prop up someones’ tender feelings of needing to wallow in an envious obsession of envy and the need for a far away demon.

The silliest thing that clever people are saying about the world economic crisis is that the United States will lose its position as the dominant world superpower in consequence. On the contrary: the crisis strengthens the relative position of the United States and exposes the far graver weaknesses of all prospective competitors. It makes the debt of the American government the world's most desirable asset. America may deserve to decline, but as Clint Eastwood said in another context, "deserve's got nothing to do with it". President Barack Obama may turn out to be the most egregious unilateralist in American history.

America's supposed decline dominates the glossy magazines. Last September, Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck intoned, "One thing seems probable to me. As a result of the crisis, the United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system." The German official is quoted by Professor Richard Florida in the March 2009 Atlantic Monthly, who adds, "You don't have to strain too hard to see the financial crisis as the death knell for a debt-ridden, overconsuming and underproducing American empire - the fall long prophesied by [British historian] Paul Kennedy and others." (Florida's views are more nuanced).

Ah, the buzzwords. “Empire” “Over-consuming” etc., etc. Those phrases signal who can hear the silent dog-whistle and who can’t. It’s a good thing the US can remain useful as a hobby-horse to flag their feeble careers and lack of attention by the press.

Get into Single File. Form One Line.

Vaclav Klaus seems to be trying to steer Europe into a kind of sustainable federalism, and away from the over-centralization of state power that made the 20th century as bloody and traumatic as it was. In large part, it was because man was pushed and engineered into a specific “model of efficiency” and used as a tool. In effect, the Jedermann was and is today being buffaloed into becoming a sheepish tool with arguments about the need for collectivism and state social management as a way of wresting SOME SMALL RATION of human decency for oneself.

I call it ceasing to be a human, the kind living in the first person singular and all that. But what do I know?

The main aspects of Europeism, as I see them, can be summarized in the following way:

- the belief in social market economy, and the demonization of free markets;

- the reliance on civil society, on NGOs, on social partnership, on corporatism, instead of classical parliamentary democracy;

- the aiming at social constructivism as a result of the disbelief in spontaneous evolution of human society;

- indifference towards the nation state and blind faith in internationalism;

- the promotion of the supranationalist model of European integration, not its intergovernmental model.

Your ration card, of course, comes from a casual looking complex of rules, mores, and non-government authority mechanisms. If the very idea that Klaus’ statements are demonized in de rigeur fashion, and as a function of what one must do in polite political discourse, then I would say that European society is already reaching that intellectual dystopia that characterized the age of Hitler and Stalin, Honecker and Chaucescu.

Peace on Earth -or- Purity of Essence?

Remember when the collective environmentalists around the world breathed a sigh of relief (and thus damaging the climate with their reckless CO2 emissions) last November when the world was righted via the election of Democrats across the board in the US?

What do they "think" now?

To environmentalists, there is no more urgent question than addressing global climate change. The new Democrat-led Congress has vowed to pass major cap-and-trade legislation in response.

Later this year. Maybe.

While President Obama said in Canada last week that climate change remains a priority, Congress appears in no hurry to act.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week promised a bill "hopefully" by late summer. The House is unlikely to even attempt to pass a major bill until December at the earliest, according to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The nuance is overwhelming.

The Shoe-Thrower of Baghdad: Le Monde's Iraqi Hero Gets More Ink, More Praise, More Everything…

On n'épiloguera pas ici sur les 100 000 à 500 000 morts déplorés en Irak depuis une invasion officiellement lancée, en mars 2003, pour « démettre un dictateur de ses armes de destruction massive ». On n'évoquera pas les milliers de civils innocents abattus « par erreur » depuis six ans aux barrages militaires américains. Ni les centaines de familles décimées comme autant de « dommages collatéraux » dans des bombardements « antiterroristes » prétendument « ciblés ».

Thus writes Patrice Claude in Le Monde, evoking the "thousands of innocent civilians shot down 'by mistake'" (in quotation marks) as well as the hundreds of families "decimated" as "collateral damage" (again, the objective journalist's quotation marks) and, needless to say, "the 100,000 to 500,000 dead deplored in Iraq" since the invasion (no sense in trying to get more specific, I suppose). The journalist has more to say about George W. Bush — his unknown suppleness and his "unexpected" sense of humor — which (after "only" eight years!) goes to show that like so many other mainstream "journalists", Patrice Claude has let his liberal tendencies get in the way of his supposed objectivity.

Après avoir brillamment montré sur les écrans du monde entier qu'il avait une belle capacité d'esquive et une échine plus souple qu'il n'y semblait jusque-là, George Bush, la « victime », avait lui-même montré la voie en appelant les autorités irakiennes à ne pas « réagir avec excès ». Faisant preuve d'un humour inattendu — « tout ce que je peux dire c'est que c'était une taille 10 », avait-il souri dans son avion de retour —, le président des Etats-Unis avait déclaré plus sérieusement après l'incident : « Voilà ce qui arrive dans les sociétés libres, les gens cherchent à attirer l'attention sur eux-mêmes. »

Well, yes, Bush's — may we call it healthy? — sense of humor may seem surprising to people who spent the past eight years doing nothing but demonizing, ridiculing, and caricaturing the man — in the process ignoring or minimizing anything that about him that might seem positive — or even remotely human…

Du statut d'obscur salarié d'une station de télévision irakienne inconnue nommée Al-Bagdadiya, exclusivement diffusée par satellite depuis Le Caire, Mountazer Al-Zaïdi est devenu l'icône des opprimés de la terre, l'idole des foules arabes, le vengeur patenté des musulmans de la planète, le rédempteur fêté de tous les plumitifs inécoutés de l'univers.

We later learn that Mountazer Al-Zaïdi has a poster of Che Guevara in his room and that the Najaf native "is" a hero "for" the entire Muslim and Arab world (how many tens — hundreds? — of millions live there?) because "thousands" have demonstrated for him in Iraq and because "thousands" have demonstrated for him in Egypt, Palestine, Indonesia, and Pakistan. We also learn that a Bagdad sculptor, Maith Al-Amari, has built a shoe monument in honor of him in Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein was born.

Speaking of which, of course we hear nary a word about Saddam himself, or his crimes. And while bemoaning Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's lack of humor and while speaking of Mountazer Al-Zaïdi's alleged tortures after his arrest, Patrice Claude manages to mention them in the passive ("on a raconté qu'il avait été battu, torturé") while omitting that it was the hooligan himself — and/or his family — who (deliberately) lied about the exactions t0 bring sympathy to the poor man.

Mountazer Al-Zaïdi n'a pas cherché à tuer George Bush. Simplement à lui dire son mépris, sa frustration, sa souffrance d'Irakien.

Finally, we hear — from both Al-Zaïdi's lawyer and Patrice Claude — that the shoe throw was not meant to kill (ah yes — it was meant only to express himself and to express his feelings and to express his sufferings), and therefore the Najaf native should be released. But not only murders or attempted assassinations are judged in the justice systems of any given country. So are the acts of crooks, thieves, smugglers, and, last but not least… hooligans.

NP readers ..... Be the expert!

As proven repeatedly, readers of No Pasaran are amongst the best on the web. As such, collective expertise is required on the following article:

The centrepiece satellite of Nasa’s $280 million climate-change mission crashed into the sea near Antarctica today after a launch failure, delivering a blow to the agency's attempts to understand global warming.

The carbon dioxide-monitoring satellite was fired on a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but after blasting through the Earth’s atmosphere it fell short of its orbiting height and plummeted back towards the sea.

The orbiting carbon observatory (OCO) satellite was designed to map carbon dioxide on Earth to provide an important step forward for scientists attempting to understand climate change.

Had this incident occurred in relationship to the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars") what would the collective reax from the media be? All submissions welcome.

Gems left in the rough

Most struggling businesses are quick to deploy all of their assets to try and ensure long-term survival, this consideration is secondary of course if the business involved is primarily involved with agenda-setting, information manufacturing, information shading and information concealment. Given that set-up most astute readers have already guessed this post is in regards to the New York Times.

The struggling New York Times has paid good money to commission a poll of voter sentiment on issues of the day (editors note - The New York Times partnered with the equally struggling CBS television network in commissioning the poll). Given the dire financial straits of the New York Times one would think that all possible news would be wrung out of the poll and into print in order to help this struggling business get full value for the monies spent. If the the business involved was actually interested in reporting the news that would undoubtedly be the case. Do keep in mind, this is the New York Times.

So what gems from the poll missed out on the prestigous A1 position article and were left on the cutting room floor?

For those in the know (un-reported of course):

34. From what you know so far, what do you think about the number of tax cuts for businesses and individuals included in the economic stimulus package — are there too many cuts, too few tax cuts, about the right amount of tax cuts, or don't you know enough yet to say?

Too many - 9
Too few - 20
Right amount - 17
Don't know enough - 51
DK/NA - 3
2/18-22/09

43. In your opinion, which will do MORE to protect or create jobs: increased government spending on infrastructure, health care, education and other fields, OR tax cuts that would put more money in the hands of individuals and businesses?

Increased government spending - 41
Tax cuts - 50
Both(vol.) - 3
DK/NA - 5
2/18-22/09

An attempt to manufacture news by misconstruing a question (reported of course) via the lack of including the word 'some' as in 'some homeowners'.....

57. The Obama Administration has a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, avoid foreclosure and make more credit available for mortgages. Do you think the federal government should provide this financial help to homeowners, or shouldn't the federal government do this, or don’t you know enough yet to say?

Government should help - 61
Government shouldn't - 20
Don't know enough(vol.) - 14
Some, not others - 3
DK/NA - 2
2/18-22/09

..... is woefully under-cut by a question (un-reported of course) closer to the real issue:

62. Which comes closer to your view about the Obama administration's proposal to address the housing crisis: 1. I am mostly relieved that steps are being taken to help people facing foreclosure or 2. I am mostly resentful that the plan could help homeowners who may have taken out mortgages they weren't certain they could pay, or 3. I haven't heard enough about the proposal to say? QUESTION ADDED 2/20/09 N=614

Relieved - 35
Resentful - 35
Haven’t heard enough - 26
DK/NA - 3
2/20-22/09

Never fear, there is at least some levity in the poll as well (un-reported of course):

13. Beside the economy, which of these domestic policy areas do you want the President and Congress to concentrate on MOST right now — health care, global warming, education, or Social Security? ANSWER OPTIONS WERE ROTATED

Health care - 40
Global warming - 5
Education - 27
Social Security - 22
Something else/Combination (vol.) - 4
DK/NA - 1
2/18-22/09

Money well spent.

Paging Captain Nuance

Yet another worldly “sophisticate” pays us a visit.